How quantum spacetime topology might save falling observers from firewalls

The firewall paradox asks whether infalling observers hit a wall of radiation at the black hole horizon — a consequence of quantum information theory clashing with smooth spacetime. Working in a simplified 2D gravity model, this paper shows that once you allow the interior topology to split and reconnect (like a pair of pants), the firewall branch of the quantum state gets annihilated by gravitational constraints after the Page time. The surviving branch is smooth, and the interior partner modes become mathematically identical to the decoded early Hawking radiation — exactly what unitarity demands.